Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
+1 on the volunteer work. I ran as an EMT and ski patrol for 20 years. Saw more trauma on the street and slopes than the average nurse does, for sure. Experience in public arena will develop skills quickly.
You can run with some volunteer ambulances with not much more that Red Cross First Responder, then take the EMT course and move on as a Paramedic. All while investing not a lot of training time and money in finding out if that is the life you really want.
The best advice is what you said yourself:
Quote:
The thought of spending 11 years of my life working really hard, getting high marks, and studying all the time doesn't sound like something I would want in my life. I really value the concept of work to live than live to work.
IDR591 has it right too, but it is true of any profession as I have experienced the same thing in engineering.
Save this quote. Read it again. Shake your head and curse your younger self as 27 year old physicians boss you around and treat you like you are incompetent while you are in your 40's.
nurse practitioners can open their own practice right? Not get bossed around
nurse practitioners can open their own practice right? Not get bossed around
My family doctor is an NP and has her own practice with several others. The PA I use is with a clinic. Both are excellent health care providers and seem to enjoy their jobs. In fact, the NP discovered my hypothyroidism. I believe one profession involves more schooling. The pay is $100k plus or minus the last time I checked.
If you don't mind bodily fluids, bedpans, physical contact, and being around people in physical pain, you might think about Nurse Practitioner or Physicians Assistant as clickrf8 suggests. However, as idr591 says, at least some of the physicians you work with may look down on you and that will get old after a few years.
If you prefer not to be around the bodily fluids etc., you might think about the mental health professions: Licensed Counselor or Marriage and Family Therapist or Social Worker. A decent career in the mental health fields however requires a Master's degree, you're going to be making peanuts with just a Bachelor's degree (under $30K for the duration of your career - doing something like addiction work or monitoring patients at a treatment facility or halfway house). I'm a licensed clinical professional counselor and board certified coach with a Master's, so I've been there.
There are all kinds of medically related careers that only require a couple of years of education (these are from the program list at our local community college): Anesthesia Technologist, Cancer Registry Management, Cardiac Interventional Radiography, Clinical Lab Science, Computer Tomography (and a variety of other careers in Diagnostic Medical Imaging), Dental Hygiene, Emergency Medical Technician, Eye Care Assistant, Non-Invasive EKG, Phlebotomy/EKG, Hearing Instrument Dispensing, MRI Tech, Mammography, Medical Assistant, Operating Room Patient Care Technician, Ophthalmic Technician, Paramedic, Physical Therapist Assistant, Sonography - the list goes on and on.
Note that *whatever* you decide to do, you're going to need to get at least 2 years and possibly 4 years or more of education to pursue a career if you have any desire to make more than minimum wage for the rest of your life. There are no free lunches.
However -- we all have different preferences for our work environments. What I suggest to people is -- first decide what careers would be the best fit given your career personality traits, and investigate those as a starting point. A career counselor or coach would start you out by having you take the Self-Directed Search (SDS) or a similar test; you can take it here and get a detailed report for $9.95 (USD):
What you'll end up with is a set of careers that might be a good fit given how you prefer to work. There will be links to the O*Net Online pages for each of them; there, you can read about the education required, typical skills used on the job, employment prospects, etc. Here's the O*Net Online link:
You might find some surprises. When I took it years ago, I got a variety of careers to investigate, and ended up going back to school for clinical psychology (which was one of the suggestions).
Also, be prepared whatever you choose to do to be "bossed around" for at least several years after you get your degree. It's called "paying your dues" by old timers like me.
nurse practitioners can open their own practice right? Not get bossed around
If you wanna play that game, it never ends.
RNs look down on LPNs, NPs look down on nurses, doctors look down on NPs, specialty doctors look down on internal meds. Doctors look down on other doctors who they think are idiots, etc.
Every workplace has nice people and a@@holes.
Instead, you should be looking at what functions those people perform and whether you want to do that.
I agree with the person who said X-ray or Radiology Tech, Sonographer, etc. If you just want a laidback stable job, those are good ones.
RNs look down on LPNs, NPs look down on nurses, doctors look down on NPs, specialty doctors look down on internal meds. Doctors look down on other doctors who they think are idiots, etc.
I agree. I think this must be a huge issue in the medical field. For example, I've heard RNs do nothing but talk down LVNs and dismiss their jobs as unskilled and unimportant. It's just pathetic to hear that kind of talk. Most LVNs I know are hard-working men and women and they do valuable work caring for the elderly, the patients that nobody else wants to deal with.
I agree. I think this must be a huge issue in the medical field. For example, I've heard RNs do nothing but talk down LVNs and dismiss their jobs as unskilled and unimportant. It's just pathetic to hear that kind of talk. Most LVNs I know are hard-working men and women and they do valuable work caring for the elderly, the patients that nobody else wants to deal with.
My point was more that the people who do that are a@@holes anyway.
It doesn't make sense for doctors to look down on nurses. They perform completely different functions. A good nurse is a good nurse. A bad nurse is a bad nurse.
It's probably more likely that an MD looks down on NP/PA. Because they perform a more similar function, yet have inferior schooling/credentials.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
